Paul Bentley

Early life

Bentley was born in Sheffield and brought up in Surrey. He attended Wimbledon College, a Jesuit grammar school and Kingston Polytechnic. He then attended Birmingham University, achieving a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Drama and Theatre Arts. His M.A. dissertation, on the stage history of Wagner’s Parsifal, involved a research visit to the Wagner Festival Theatre at Bayreuth, Germany.

Career

After university Bentley moved to Munich, hoping to become an opera director. He began acting in English programmes on the Bavarian radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk. He also appeared in the film The Last Escape, in which he played a British spy in Bavaria in World War Two.

He returned to England in 1970 and continued acting, mainly in repertory theatre, at venues including the Byre Theatre at St. Andrews, the Leicester Haymarket Theatre, the Duke’s Playhouse at Lancaster, and the Newcastle Playhouse.

In 1973 Bentley wrote the book and lyrics for Shylock, a musical version of The Merchant of Venice, performed at the 1974 Edinburgh Festival. He played the title role; the composer and director was Roger Haines. Shylock won a Scotsman Fringe First Award. In 1977 an updated version called Fire Angel, set in a 20th century New York City Mafia nightclub, appeared at Her Majesty’s Theatre, London. Bentley was the alternate leading man, his first West End part. A revised version of the original Shylock was produced at the Leicester Haymarket Studio Theatre in 1981 and at the Manchester Library Theatre in 1982. Bentley again played the title role and Haines directed both productions.

Bentley’s second West End show was in Tommy Steele’s Singin’ In The Rain at the London Palladium. In 1985 he went to Dublin to play Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore, which transferred to the Old Vic in 1986 for which Bentley was nominated for an Olivier Award for the Outstanding Performance of the Year by an Actor in a Musical. This success led to four back-to-back West End shows lasting five years: Lend Me A Tenor, Follies, Cats and Aspects of Love. Next came an off-West-End Assassins followed by a national tour of Aspects of Love, then Phantom of the Opera in Manchester and back to London for Company, Kiss Me Kate and Dame Edna - the Spectacle. Bentley has other radio, television and film credits but most of his work has been in theatre.

In 1994 Bentley was asked by the Danish composer Poul Ruders to write the libretto for his opera The Handmaid’s Tale based on Margaret Atwood’s novel, which won a Cannes Classical Award and Reumert Prize. In A Handmaid’s Diary, Bentley tells the story of the opera from the first phone call to the first night (directed by Phyllida Lloyd). Ruders' and Bentley’s second opera was Kafka's Trial. Librettos for three other composers followed: Ana Sokolovic's The Midnight Court, Dominique Le Gendre’s Bird of Night and James Rolfe’s Inês.

Bentley has also written a novel, The Man Who Came After Hyacinth Bobo, about the Fourth Crusade and the Siege of Constantinople, published in Greek and English, plus occasional newspaper and magazine articles. Bentley’s latest works include a play about the Jesuit scientist Teilhard de Chardin and a radio play in which Jane Austen meets Lord Byron.

Personal life

Paul Bentley married Annie Healey in 1979. They met at the Byre Theatre, St. Andrews, where Annie was an assistant stage manager. They have two daughters, Emma and Rebecca, who both work in the theatre. Bentley’s sister, the novelist Ursula Bentley, died in 2004.

Bentley took part in Mastermind on BBC TV (15 March 1992) where his specialist subject was The Life and Works of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. He lost in this first round with a score of 29.

He is a member of the Wagner Society, the British Teilhard Association and the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies. He was the Founder Chairman of the British Association for Modern Mosaic from 1999 to 2005 and remains a member. He is the editor of the website Mosaic Matters, a website about mosaics.

Awards and nominations

Stage and screen credits

Theatre

Television

Film

Radio

Recordings as singer

Recordings as librettist

Operas as producer

• Ines - director Jennifer Tarver - Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, Enwave Theatre, Toronto, 2009
• Bird of Night – director Irina Brown – Royal Opera Covent Garden, Linbury Studio, London, 2006
• The Midnight Court - director Michael Cavanagh – Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto 2005; Royal Opera Covent Garden, Linbury Studio, London, 2006
• Kafka’s Trial – director Francisco Negrin – Opera House, Copenhagen, 2005
• The Handmaid’s Tale – director Eric Simonson – Minnesota Opera, Minneapolis, 2003
• The Handmaid’s Tale – director Phyllida Lloyd - Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen, 2000; English National Opera, London, 2003; Canadian Opera Company, Toronto, 2004

Bibliography

• The Mosaicing of Westminster Cathedral, in New Light on Old Glass, British Museum 2013
• The Man Who Came After Hyacinth Bobo, Fourth Crusade novel, Amazon 2011
• Ines, libretto based on the Inês de Castro legend, 2009
• Bird of Night, libretto set in Trinidad, 2006
• Thrills not theology, article on The Da Vinci Code for the Daily Telegraph, 6 May 2006
• Kafka the comedian, article for the Daily Telegraph, 28 February 2005
• The Midnight Court, libretto based on the poem by Brian Merriman, 2005
• What Islam took from Byzantium, article for the Catholic Herald, 14 May 2004
• A Handmaid’s Diary, how The Handmaid’s Tale became an opera, Wilhelm Hansen 2004
• Ο άνθρωπος που διαδέχθηκε τον Υάκινθο Βωβό, Fourth Crusade novel, Enalios 2004
• Lost for Words, article on Berlioz and Wagner, Opera Now, Jan/Feb 2003
• The Handmaid’s Tale vocal score, Wilhelm Hansen 2002
• Time to cover a ton of bricks, article for the Daily Telegraph, 24 July 1999